Will and the Enderman
by Dwarven Runes
Summary: Will runs into an enderman, and other things too.
1. What in the world?

**Welcome, readers! Dwarven Runes does NOT own ****_Ranger's Apprentice_**** or Minecraft. Just letting you know.**

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Will had the sense that he was being watched. This feeling had been slowly creeping up on him for the past few hours. Tug had been giving him signals since early this morning. Yet, when he used the techniques he'd been taught to catch followers unaware, he caught no glimpse of anyone, nor anything. It was unsettling, but as long as he was in this mess of a forest, there was nothing he could do about it. So he rode on, wary for any sudden movements or attacks. He knew there was a large clearing up ahead, and it was not too far from where he was. His plan was to ride into the middle of the clearing, look around, and see if he couldn't catch anyone. After a few tense moments, he reached the clearing and cantered to its center. He stopped suddenly, and turned around sharply. No. There was no one. Frowning, he turned back. He spent a few minutes analyzing sounds, and was about to urge Tug on when he heard the strangest sound. Tug made another signal. "I know, boy," Will said soothingly, or a soothingly as he could manage. He looked around quickly. He still couldn't see anything. He shrugged nonchalantly and tapped his heel to Tug's side. "Let's get going." He was almost to the edge of the clearing when he heard it again. That strange poofing sound. Will swiveled around in the saddle as quickly as he could. It had come from behind him. The source of the sound stood in the center of the clearing, staring at him with large purple eyes. Their eyes met. Will's widened. The tall black creature's jaw dropped. They stared at each other, and the creature began to make a different sound, one that sent chills down Will's spine. It was a creaking sound, a terrifying noise. The creature kept staring and staring. Will's eyes got wider and wider, and his mouth got dry. It occurred to him that perhaps he should run. The wisdom of this idea was evidently shared with Tug, as after a mere two seconds of the terrible creaking, Tug bunched his muscles and sprinted away like a bat out of hell. Will kept staring at the strange creature in the clearing. Just before the clearing was out of sight, and the creature with it, Will saw a glowing blue streak hurtle into the clearing, knocking the monster down. As he watched, it became clear the streak was a person. The figure turned and waved jauntily at Will before being smacked across the clearing. Unperturbed, the person sprang forward to swipe at the monster with a... was that a glowing blue sword? The black creature screeched and disappeared, reappearing behind its attacker. There. That was the poof sound. That creature was going poof. And teleporting.

...this was just too strange. Will continued to watch the battle in a dreamlike state, scarcely paying attention to his surroundings.  
So when Tug ran through a series of low-lying branches, it really wasn't Will's fault that he was knocked senseless by one. Right?

...Oh, he was so screwed if Halt ever found out.

And that's why only one person understood how someone, or something, was apparently teleporting through walls, floors, and ceilings alike to steal cakes from the castle pantry.

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**If you liked this, please review, favorite, or check out my other stories! I focus mainly on One Piece, so if you like nakama, I think you'd like what I have to offer.**

**Hope you enjoyed, and have a lovely day.**


	2. Horace's Ballerina

**I have been requested to make another chapter. **

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Horace sat beneath a tree, legs stretched out and arms behind his head. He gave a contented sigh. He'd forgotten how pretty a sunset was.

This was nice. He should do this more often.

Here he was, relaxing. No one was calling after him, wanting him to do this, or fix that. At least, no one he could hear.

Life as the princess's fiancé was not what he'd expected. He had thought, perhaps, that people would be at his beck and call for once, and that he could get a good night's sleep, and he'd do it all in comfort and style.

Not really. It seemed he'd hardly finish one piece of state business before yet another quarrel amongst the Barons occurred. And after soothing ruffled feathers, he'd have to deal with the aftermath quarrels. He'd much rather leave these things to Cassandra, but Duncan had sent her on a diplomatic mission. Oh, how he wished he'd have gone with her! Horace was worried, and Duncan worried too, but...

But that was neither here nor there. Here, it was Horace's time for tranquility. His slice of solitude. His portion of peace.

He stopped that train of thought before it got out of hand.

No, this time was his, whether the castle folk liked it or not. And he was relatively comfortable, which was a plus.

So here he was, watching the sunset in relative freedom as he was not inside the castle walls. He was, in fact, quite a distance away. Oh, he could still see the castle, but he liked to pretend he didn't. And it really wasn't that far a walk back in the dark.

He'd start back as soon as that last... sliver of sun... disappeared. Ah.

Horace stood and stretched. Oh well. Time for tranquility was over and done.

He began to stroll back to the castle, taking his own sweet time in the dusky light.

He was enjoying himself so much that it took a second guttural noise from the strange man to jolt him from his reverie.

"Oh?" Horace turned, and looked at the person he'd just passed on the road. "May I help you?" he asked politely. He was given yet another strange noise in response. Odd. Perhaps he was sick. The fellow kept advancing, making those odd moans. Horace backed up and loosened his sword, which he never went anywhere without, in his sheath. If the man was sick, he did not want to get sick himself.

A stiff wind blew, and Horace, who was downwind of the man, gagged on the sudden foul stench of rotting flesh. "Good lord, man!" he exclaimed, struggling to control his stomach, "What is wrong with you? No, don't even try to answer. It's clear that it's very nasty, and you have obviously not been treated for it, whatever it is. I'll see if I can get a doctor from the castle."

Horace turned with the intent of running to the castle, only to find himself face to face with another person, who, judging by the smell, was suffering from the same disease.

It was then that the stiff wind blew the cloud away from the face of the steadily rising moon, and Horace saw that he was surrounded by creatures, for that was surely what they were.

And not just any creature. He was pretty sure they were zombies.

His heart was seized with fear, but with a warrior's instinct, his fist seized his sword, and his battle lust, having been restrained for so long, was far, far stronger than the fear. He gave a grim little smile, and thought to himself, "Well, it appears Will's been telling the truth all these years. I'll have to have a talk with him about that when I get back."

And he went to work.

His blade swept and leapt and fell like a ballerina clad in steel. Horace led her in his battle-dance, footsteps falling in all the right places, twirling at all the right times. Their movements were beautifully in synch. It was a joy to dance, and enchanting to watch.

Finally, the zombies were gone. All that remained, curiously enough, were chunks of rotten flesh.

Horace's steps came to a stop, and the closing movements, those of cleaning his sword and sheathing it, were taken at a slower tempo.

He sighed, shook his head, and continued on his way back to the castle, whistling a little tune. It wasn't often he got something to tease Will about, but, here it was. Will had told him about zombies with his knees practically knocking together! Admittedly, they'd been young at the time, and yes, Horace had been a little frightened by his own encounter (just a tad, really), but...

Personally, Horace thought this made for a better story than how Will once dueled a skeleton.

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The two figures came out from behind their respective trees, and watched the man walk away from the battle scene.

He'd fought an entire zombie horde without armor, with just an iron sword.

No bows. No arrows. Just an iron sword. Not even boots, for goodness sake!

And he had made it look amazing. Graceful. Beautiful, even.

"Steve?"

"Yeah?"

"We've gotta learn how to do that."

Steve nodded. "Yeah."

"He made our xp levels go up, just by watching him!"

"Yeah."

"I wonder who he was."

"Maybe he's part of the update."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

The two stood in companionable silence for a moment.

And in ten minutes, it was daytime.

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"Horace! What in the seven hells possessed you to stay out of the castle last night?!"

Horace blinked, very confused. "I didn't. The sun just set."

"Horace, are you feeling all right?"

"Yes, I am perfectly fine. But you'll never guess what I ran into!"

"Zombies? Oh, or maybe a skeleton."

"How did you know?" Horace asked with amazement.

"...Horace, are you absolutely sure you're feeling fine?"

"Yes, yes. I'm fine. Now, about those zombies..."

"Do me a favor and look outside."

"What?"

"Just do it."

"Fine. But then you have to listen to my story."

"If you're still up to telling it."

Horace went to the window and pulled open the curtain. Daylight shone into the room. He stared outside onto the bright, shiny day that replaced his very recent night, the pitch black, and apparently short, night he'd just come inside from. Then, he very carefully backed away and closed the curtain. "I think," he said slowly, "I'd like something to drink."

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**Heyla! I'll probably put up the chapter with the skelly vs. Will duel in it. Be patient, please.**

**Just remember, if you read, reviewing is appreciated. So is following, favoriting, and checking out my other stories. Thanks!**

**Shout outs:**

**To Guest, the one who asked me to do another chapter! Thanks for that.**

**AN:**

**Nakama, for anyone interested, is a term used in anime, and one that I believe translates to something like "trusted friend" or "trusted companion" or even "trusted team member". Trust is the key word, or that's the impression I've been getting. I didn't look it up, I simply inferred it from the anime. **


	3. Good Night, Skelly!

It was a deep, dark Midsummer's Eve. The moon was overshadowed by wisps of cloud. A cool wind blew from the north, chilling the night. It whispered through the grass and rustled the leaves. The trees creaked quietly to themselves, and a lone wolf howled achingly in the distance. It was an eerie night, to be sure. Yet Will knew all these sounds, and knew them well.

Still, the night was eerie, and full of unexpected and unwanted sounds.

He thought he heard moaning beneath the whispering wind, and hissing lurked on the edge of hearing. There were strange gurgling noises that did not come from the brook, and an odd 'poof' noise whenever the wolf howled. But the most unnatural sound was the clicking and clacking that intertwined with the creak of the trees.

Will had never heard such a sound before. It was as though a wooden clockwork toy had suddenly come to life, and was walking through the trees. Like a toy, but not a toy. For it was menacing. Challenging, even. But whatever it was, it was frightening. And it was headed towards Will.

Will's eyes widened when he realized this, and quickly swarmed up a tree, heart pounding. He perched on a branch, and became one with the tree, moving with its swaying and creaking, allowing the wind to move him with the tree. His eyes, the only things that moved, scanned the ground frantically. Where was it?

A bone white figure stepped into his eyesight, and his heart nearly stopped. It was only his training that kept him from falling off his branch. The creature before him was a skeleton, bone white because it was bone, with a bow in one hand and an arrow in another. Will's heart raced as it looked around. And then, just as it seemed as though it would leave, the skeleton looked straight up, locking eye sockets with him. It had blank holes for eyes, and they revealed no emotion, but its mouth smiled soullessly up at Will. Casually, the skeleton nocked the arrow, and lifted the bow. It was just starting to draw when Will realized that it was about to kill him.

Reacting instinctively, he flipped backwards off the branch, hanging beneath it for a second. In that second, he heard the _zip_ of an arrow go straight through the place his heart had been just milliseconds ago. Wasting no time, for he knew he had precious little, he dropped from the branch. He crashed into the skeleton, and had the satisfaction of hearing the crack of breaking bones. Then he rolled away, freeing his bow from where he had strung it and grabbing an arrow from his quiver in one neat movement. The skeleton paid no mind to its broken bones, and was about to loose another shaft. Will saw this, and leaped to the side, drawing as he did so. The skeleton didn't bother correcting its aim, and shot the arrow into empty space. Will thought it was moving as though it had all the time in the world, carefully choosing an arrow to nock, and not paying attention to Will beyond the type of attention an archer gives his practice target. Will was not about to ignore this rookie mistake, and took vindictive glee in getting off a few shots of his own. He nocked, and fired off three consecutive arrows. Each one found its mark. The skeleton was unperturbed by the two headshots and single shot to the ribs, and went to fire yet another arrow. This time, though, Will fired first, and much to his surprise, the skeleton fell over and crumbled, leaving only a few bones, some arrows, and a bow behind. Will pondered this for a second before coming to an important conclusion. "Never," he said decisively, "Doubt the power of an arrow to the knee."

For indeed, that was where his last shot had landed.

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**Thanks for reading! Hope you liked it.**

**If you want another few chapters, don't hesitate to ask. I'm willing to write more.**

**-D. Runes**


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